I have been talking a lot about creating margin in our lives so we are not stressed out.
Does this day sound familiar?
In the morning, you hurriedly gulp a cup of coffee and devour a breakfast bar as you check and respond to dozens of emails. You shower, brush your teeth (hopefully) and barely say a word to your spouse or roommate as you franticly rush off to work or school. If you have kids this only complicates matters, as you make a mad dash to prepare breakfast for the kids, pack their lunches, and drop them off at school.
As the day progresses with appointments, classes, unscheduled interruptions, endless errands, emergencies, meetings, more interruptions and continuous responsibilities, you wonder how in the world did I get so busy & where do I get off this merry-go-round.
The day really accelerates (if you have kids) when they get home from school. Two of them have soccer practice while the third has ballet. You eat fast food in the car as you play “taxi” shuttling all to different locations.
Later, after helping with science and math projects, or going to more meetings, or cramming for classes, or working a 16 hour day, then paying bills, responding to more emails, sifting through junk mail, you reintroduce your self to your spouse (if you have one) as you collapse into bed. You barely say a word to each other, drifting off to sleep to Everybody Loves Raymond droning in the background.
Does Any Of This Sound Familiar? (It makes me nauseous just thinking about it)
Sociologist have coined a word for such a lifestyle: hurrysickness.
This condition is the result of living in constant overdrive. When we cram each moment so full of tasks that we have no time to experience these events in any meaningful way.
One prominent symptom of hurrysickness is the compulsion to accomplish several things at once.
The most disturbing result of hurrysickness is that I start to see those around me as obstacles that slow me down.
To treat hurrysickness, we have to face a foe that C.S. Lewis says ambushes us with each dawn…
“It comes the very moment you wake up each morning. All your wishes, plans and hopes for the day rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists of shoving them all back; in listenig to that other voice, taking that other point of view and letting that other larger, stronger, quieter life come flowing in.”
Many of us are experiencing physical, emotional, and spiritual exhaustion caused by constantly juggling work, family, deadlines, meetings, school and endless responsibilities. We are experiencing what one theologian described as a “fatigue of the soul.”
You see in the corporate world we often look for fulfillment in our achievements. Output equals opinion of self.
However, God ascribes Importance to me as a person not a producer. That’s why we need to rediscover the priority of being over doing.
That’s Why God Gave Us —- The Gift of the Sabbath!
Learn to embrace the Sabbath principle!
Lear to slow down and enjoy the journey!
Learn how to create Margin in your life!
Have an awesome day!
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Posted on Apr
8, 2009 by Glenn Smith
in Glenn's posts
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Posted on Apr
5, 2009 by khanson
in De-Stress Your Life, Sermons
You’ve seen people traveling in airports with excess baggage. They looked “weighed down” & “stressed out.”
A lot of Christians look the same way. Weighed down & stressed out with baggage from the past.
Past hurts, disappointments, conflicts and lifestyles seem to remind us of how much of a failure we really are.
Over the past 29 years in pastoral ministry I have found that nearly all of my counseling intersects this issue of “dealing with the past” at some point.
The enemy wants to PAINT your future with your PAST!
The Apostle Paul made a powerful statement in…
(Philippians 3:13-14) Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on…
Notice: In order to reach forward to what lies ahead —- We must 1st let go of what lies behind!!!!!!!
If you want to embrace the TROPHIES of the future… you must 1st let-go of the GARBAGE of the past!
4 Important things to remember about your past;
1. The past is a thief – It robs your strength & energy!
2. The past is a bully – It pushes you around & intimidates you.
3. The past makes you a victim – As you replay the offense over and over.
4. The past is a leech – That sucks the life & your God inspired dreams out of you.
It is important for you to realize:
Your present and future will be determined by how you handle your past!!!!
SO —- Don’t get stuck in the past!
When your memories outnumber your dreams… you are STUCK in the past!
When the past seems brighter than the future… you are merely existing NOT living!
When you’re stuck in the past… you die a little more everyday!
Yesterday is over & there is nothing you can do but learn from it &… Let it go!
(1)
Posted on Apr
2, 2009 by Glenn Smith
in Glenn's posts
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